


Play of the Game {Hiatus}

by theorchardofbones



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Alternate Universe - Sports, Closeted Character, M/M, Medium Burn, Openly Bisexual Character, Prompto: 18 | Noctis: 18, fictional sport
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 19:57:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13508694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theorchardofbones/pseuds/theorchardofbones
Summary: Twelfth-grader Prompto Argentum joined his school's pyramid team in a bid to flesh out his extracurricular roster; when he wound up on the bench, he was more than happy to stay there — pyramid is a notoriously brutal contact sport, after all, and he's never been one for standing up for himself.When star player Noctis Caelum is injured mid-play, however, Prompto's sent out to replace him, and the coach soon discovers he's not half-bad.After a text conversation goes awry, Prompto finds himself unwittingly subject to some interesting feelings, and to make matters worse, it looks like he might just have a real place on the pyramid team — whether he wants it or not.





	Play of the Game {Hiatus}

**Author's Note:**

> This is largely an excuse for trashy Promptis locker room shenanigans. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> I know, I know. A new AU, what a surprise! I've been feeling really crappy about my writing lately and I feel like it's largely stupid pressure I'm putting on myself, so I wanted something trashy and meaningless to focus on the joy of writing for a while. We'll see how long I can go without making it angst-central ;)
> 
> Keeping it at an M for now, but any smut featured will take place only with characters over 18.

Sunlight streams through the skylight onto the pyramid court where the first friendly game of the season takes place between the Insomnia Griffons and the Leide Cactuars. It occurs to Prompto Argentum, where he sits safely off the court on the bench, that  _ friendly _ might just be a relative term.

The Cactuars have possession — but not for long. Prompto watches one of his teammates rush in, tackling the opposing player in possession of the ball, her elbow colliding with his face. There’s a whistle from somewhere on the sidelines but play continues.

Prompto watches with a little rush of excitement as the player breaks through the defending line, dribbles the ball against the bounce board, and catches it again with ease. Prompto knows as well as anybody else that she could probably make the shot herself, but instead she twists and hurls the ball at the ground with a bounce that sends it straight into the grasp of the Griffons’ star player, Noctis Caelum.

There’s just one person in between him and the goal — he feints around them with all the grace of a professional player, and once he recovers his stride he hurls the ball, sending it straight into the basket.

A synchronised cheer rings out from the bleachers; Prompto isn’t alone as he jumps to his feet and pumps his fist in the air with an excited whoop. Behind him, a chant of  _ Noctis! Noctis! Noctis! _ picks up in the bleachers, and he has to fight the urge to join in.

The goal resets play, the players returning to their starting positions. As Prompto sits down, he keeps his eyes on Noctis where he tosses the ball to a teammate and he brings it to the safe zone. He bounces it off the boards at the bottom of the court, returning the ball to play.

The Griffons catch it — another jolt of excitement from Prompto as he watches a teammate toss the ball to Noctis and he makes a shot from almost at the centre of the court, scoring with ease.

The crowd positively explodes, Prompto among them — it easily has to be one of the best shots of the game. Even though it’s only a friendly, it’s plain to see that the Cactuars are starting to get bad-tempered.

The Griffons get possession again. From where Prompto sits he sees his teammates clearly mean to make a similar play to the one that won the last time, but the Cactuars seem to have caught on. A handful of players stand blocking Noctis, and even as the ball bounces back into play they won’t let up.

Noctis is fast, though — and smart. Prompto watches him sprint around them toward the bottom left corner of the court. One of the Cactuars has possession now, but he’s hot on their tail, making quick work of the distance between them thanks to his lithe frame.

He’s — he can’t be. Prompto covers his mouth with his hands and mutters a soft chorus of ‘Oh no, oh no’ as he realises Noctis means to tackle for possession of the ball by himself. Prompto’s on the edge of his seat as he watches, and it looks like Noctis might  _ actually _ make it when there’s a sudden blur of movement up the court as the other team tackles Noctis, hard, sending him sprawling across the court.

A whistle screams through the air and the game stops. The ref doesn’t need to make the customary  _ empty hands _ gesture for any of the spectators to understand what happened: a player was tackled without being in possession of the ball, which means the offending player is out of play for the frame.

Prompto’s more worried about Noctis; he took a hard hit and he’s still not getting up from where he lies curled in fetal position, clutching a hand to his shoulder.

‘Argentum.’

Prompto glances up. Coach Altius stands over him, blocking out the sunlight from overhead with her silhouette.

‘You’re up,’ she says.

A sick feeling of anxiety washes over Prompto. He’s never  _ actually _ played outside of practice and recreational games with friends, and his position on the bench might as well be an honorary one. There are two other players she could choose from — a scorer, like Noctis, and an all-rounder. Picking Prompto over them is as good as ensuring they’ll lose their lead.

‘W- what?’ he stammers. ‘Me?’

She’s getting impatient. She throws a thumb in the direction of the court with an expression that brooks no argument.

‘Gotta get Caelum looked at before he can return to play,’ she says. ‘Get out there, and try to keep out of the way of your teammates.’

He feels sick as he pulls on his helmet, straps it under his chin and rises to his feet. He can see Noctis being helped to his feet at the edge of the court, doubled over as though still in pain. Whatever it is, Prompto hopes it doesn’t keep him out of play for long.

‘Don’t fuck this up, Argentum.’

It’s a hiss — it could be from anybody. He tries to ignore it as he walks to a spot out of the way of the bounce boards and the goal and waits for play to resume.

The whistle cuts through the air, and he feels sweat prick immediately at his underarms. Already the pressure is on, and his job is just to stay out of the way.

Due to the foul, the Griffons have possession this time; their defense hurls it at one of the bounce boards and it’s quickly caught by a waiting Cactuar, seemingly emboldened by Noctis’s absence.

The green and yellow of the Cactuar uniform breezes past him in a whirlwind as they flock across the court to support their teammate. He’s alone on his side of the court, which means he’s following the coach’s instructions to a T.

Up ahead, his teammates are swarming the player in possession; she can’t pass to anybody from where she stands. She tosses the ball at the bounce board closest to her, and it ricochets off of it, hurtling in the opposite direction.

It hits the ground and bounces, and Prompto realises with ice water in his veins that it’s coming right for him.

Time seems to move impossibly fast as he dashes towards it and catches it in his arms. Everyone’s attention is on the Cactuar who had the ball; everything’s such a blur that they don’t seem to realise she doesn’t have it any more. 

‘Argentum!’

His head snaps toward the sound of his name — one of his teammates, Ella from English — stands by the goal, waving her hands at him. There’s a Cactuar between the two of them, but he’s pretty sure he can get an angle on the bounce board close by to pass it to his teammate.

He turns and takes two steps backward to line up the pass. Behind him, he can hear the screech of shoes across the floor, getting closer now that the Cactuars have realised he has the ball. They’re right behind him when he flings the ball at the bounce board as hard as he can. He barely has time to see it bounce into the hands of his teammate before he’s tackled from behind, and has to throw his hands out to break his fall.

The roar from the crowd a moment later tells him his team scored. Dizzily, he realises he helped — in his own, tiny way, he helped.

Strong hands help him to his feet; when he looks up two of his teammates are standing there, grinning gleefully at him.

‘Good job,’ one of them says.

To Prompto’s ears, it’s the sweetest praise he’s ever heard.

* * *

Noctis never made it back into play — nothing was broken, but the medic hadn’t been too happy to let him return when his shoulder and ribs had been so tender to the touch. Still, he’s surrounded in the locker room by players in the black and gold of the Griffons as they laud him as though he were the one who scored the last goal of the game, and Prompto can’t help but think every word of it is deserved.

He’s pleased with his own little contribution to the game, even if he didn’t manage to get his hands on the ball again. He didn’t sabotage the whole thing for his team, and that’s good enough for him.

He showers and dresses quickly as he always does, and as he slips out of the doors of the locker room the sounds of their revelry follow him down the hallway.

* * *

Prompto’s phone buzzes in his pocket while he’s sitting down to dinner. He knows his mom doesn’t approve of phones at the dinner table, but she waves him off with a knowing little smile.

She had been  _ so damn proud _ when he told her he got to play on the court today — his first actual game, even if it hadn’t counted towards the league table. She had made him tell her all about it over and over again, as though it had been anything more than a fluke.

He doesn’t recognise the number on his phone when he checks it; when he taps into the message, the contact card attached to it has a picture of Noctis.

_ dude u were great 2day _ __  
_ at least from what i could see lol _ _  
_ __ was kinda out of it when it happened

Noctis is about the last person Prompto would ever expect to have his phone number, let alone contact him, but he doesn’t question it. Noctis is one of the in-crowd; hopefully Prompto won’t  _ completely _ mess this up.

_ no way dude! _ __  
_ you destroyed the cactuars out there _ _  
_ __ did they give you the all-clear to play again soon?

He sets his phone down on the table while he waits for an answer. Across the table, his mom watches him curiously.

‘Is that a friend?’ she says, over her plate of pasta.

He shrugs.

‘Sorta.’

Noctis’s reply takes a little while to come through — long enough that Prompto figures maybe he said something wrong. With a sigh, he digs his fork into his food and shovels a bunch of it into his mouth.

On the table, the screen of his phone lights up. In the notification there’s no text message, just the words  _ Picture Attached. _

He picks up his phone and unlocks the screen. Immediately a picture fills the message window, and it’s enough to make Prompto blush.

It’s a neckdown shot of Noctis, wearing little more than his underwear: he’s tensing his muscles so they stand out, and Prompto can’t help but look at the trail of dark hair, almost jet black, leading like a way marker down into his underwear. At the bottom of the image, Noctis’s thumb is hooked under the band of his boxer-briefs, tugging them down to expose his hip. At the top, his shoulder and ribs are purple with the beginnings of some nasty looking bruises.

_ pretty beat up. wanna kiss it better? _

Prompto’s heart is in his throat as he reads the words over. It’s not like he’s never looked idly at Noctis in the locker room — it can’t really be helped with a bunch of guys wandering around in varying states of undress — but he hasn’t thought of Noctis  _ that way _ before.

He’s pretty sure Noctis is as straight as they come, too. Wasn’t he dating some chick he met on vacation in Altissia?

He doesn’t know how to respond. Is it a joke? Should he brush it off as one? What if Noctis means it?

_ Hold up, Prompto, _ he thinks.  _ You’re not seriously considering sexting with the star player of the pyramid team, are you? _

As it turns out, he doesn’t have to make that call — his phone explodes with messages and it’s all he can do to keep on top of them as they come through. His mother watches with a raised eyebrow from where she sits and he can do little more than flash her a meek smile and tilt his phone up further, just to be sure she can’t see the screen.

_ woah _ __  
_ fuck _ __  
_ shit that was NOT 4 U _ __  
_ do not breathe a word of this _ __  
_ 2 ANYBODY _ __  
_ ANSWER ME, ARGENTUM _ _  
_ __ plz dude i’ll do anything

Prompto can’t even imagine a world where he’d dream of telling anybody about this. He’s been bullied and ridiculed enough over the years not to ever want to willingly expose anyone to the full harshness of high school students, but he guesses he can’t blame Noctis for being paranoid.

_ lmao it’s ok dude _ __  
_ i won’t tell anyone _ _  
_ __ i’m not that big of a dick :p

He wonders, immediately after hitting send, if maybe using the word  _ dick _ might not have been the wisest, considering the contents of the picture.

_ OK _ __  
_ anyways u did great _ _  
_ __ see u at practice

Prompto shuts off his screen and slips his phone into his pocket. When he looks up, his mom is barely hiding the fact that she’s watching him over the brim of her glass.

‘Is it a girl?’ she asks.

He only flushes harder at that; he wishes he could sink down under the table and disappear.

‘Mom,’ he says. ‘Please.’

She shrugs and sets her glass down. Innocently, she picks up her fork. It takes him a little while to realise she’s watching again, a wry smile on her lips.

‘Is it a  _ boy?’ _ she asks.

_ ‘Mom!’ _

**Author's Note:**

> Pyramid comes from [the reimagined BSG series](www.battlestargalacticamuseum.com/pyramid/). I'm tweaking the rules a little as I go along, but the essence remains the same.
> 
> [main tumblr](http://theorchardofbones.tumblr.com) | [ffxv sideblog](http://harshmallowffxv.tumblr.com) | [twitter](http://twitter.com/mooglemallow)


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